Desperados Mexican Restaurant
- Price Range: $$
- Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
- Parking: Private Lot
- Attire: Casual
- Good for Groups: Yes
- Good for Kids: Yes
- Takes Reservations: Yes
- Delivers: No
- Take-out: Yes
- Waiter Service: Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
- Outdoor Seating: Yes
- Good for: Lunch, Dinner
- Alcohol: Full Bar
12 Reviews for Desperados Mexican Restaurant
Great Tex-Mex food. The Desperado Tacos are great and unique. We also sampled the Jalisco Shrimp which was out of this world. Queso is meh. I think velvetta, rotel and chorizo is better. Chips are fantastic and the hot sauce is full of tasty cilantro, my hallmark for any good salsa. As usual a great experience. Dos is just as good as Uno, and I think they had a Tres but it closed. The only negative is I had a pissy hostess. She sat a party of four at a really small table. We moved to a booth which was worse. Then we moved back and when we got tired of knocking over drinks moved to a bigger table. She came by and gave us the stink eye but we rebuffed her advances. She claimed the table was reserved for a party of 6. When the party came in it was closer to 10 and there was no way they were fitting 10 at that table. What's really weird was the party ate the chips and salsa, only ordered tea, coke and water and then left after 30 mins. Our 4 person tab was twice or three times as large as their 10 and they were giving me shit about a table move.
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I've noticed as I'm writing reviews on here that I'm zeroing in on service as the key component to a five-star ranking. Desperados' service is five-star worthy.
Yes, yes, the food is great and the margaritas are excellent, but it's when I'm eating and I see the manager on duty walking around asking each patron about their food and experience that I really know this place is tops.
Suggested meals: Steak Argentina, Tacos Al Carbon and Chicken Itza. The Chile Con Queso is another item I highly recommend.
Whenever I have an out-of-town visitor craving Mexican/Tex-Mex, I send them to Desperados. More than that, I make sure I can go too!
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From this day forward chili con queso will now be known as yellow-melty-joy. At 9:40, after being tossed out of Cafe San Miguel (grumble grumble) we wandered down G-ville to Desperado's--also known as "that place that looks like the Alamo."
We didn't go for anything they are famous for...we wanted straight up Tex-Mex, the kind with chili powder and avocados and rice and beans and cumin. And boy, we got it. The pick any two Tex-Mex Combo plate hit the spot. Of course we started with queso, and it came out warm with thick fresh chips. Quite possibly the best mild queso I've had.
Mini-me had a guacamole tostada and chicken enchilada. The sour cream sauce was very good, nice balance of cheese and sour cream, with a hint of something spicy going on. The chicken actually had a good flavor too, sometimes the chicken gets lost in the sauce, but not so at Desperado's.
I had a cheese enchilada and a puffed taco. The salad inside the puffy shell had that oil and vinegar dressing on it that turns the whole thing kinda sweet. Some of the older Tex-Mex places do this as well. It's tasty. The cheese enchilada was the highlight of the meal. It was outstanding. The cheese inside was cheddary, the chili con carne was thick, meaty and full of chili powder. This was exactly what I was craving.
We had super comfy seating next to a fire place. The interior looks as if you're in a border-town lodge. It was very warm and inviting. Noise level was good, for as busy as it still was. Service was perfect. And I think almost everyone in the restaurant said something nice to us.
One question, there was a little hidden door behind my seat. What is that? My daughter informed me that it was for the Tex-Mex fairy who came every night and sprinkled chili powder and cumin on everything. Yeah...uhhh...that gene must come from her dad's side of the family.
Note...Wednesdays = Margarita Specials.
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I think it's pretty rare to find a Mexican restaurant that offers anything other than the typical tacos, quesadillas and guacamole. BORING. But Desperados is a tasty exception.
I can even get my picky and health conscious dad to eat here, which is quite a feat.
Like the other reviewers, I have to give praise for the Desperado tacos. They're what the place is famous for, with good reason. Don't miss 'em.
But the utterly unique items that stand out are the Azteca steamer (orange roughy fish steamed in corn husks) and the white fish ceviche. YUM.
The inside is a little dark, but it's comfortable enough, and the waitstaff are super nice.
Desperados is not your average Mexican joint, and that's a good thing. (PS, they also have concession stands at Texas Stadium, so a Cowboys game is the perfect chance to indulge.)
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This place was my little secret when I lived in Dallas, but now that I've moved, I'll let you good people in on the fun.
All you need to know is Thursday nights, Desperado Tacos for $6. You'll be amazed. You'll probably want to buy me a puppy, you'll be so happy. But don't. I already have one, and cash is so much easier. Message me for payment info. :)
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Based on the raves of all the other Desperados reviews, I made a point to go there after work recently with a coworker. The point of this review is not to repeat other reviews, but instead to talk about the basket of mints they have by the door as you exit: Key Lime!!
Wow. If you go, make sure to grab a handful of these babies. Strangest thing in the world when you pop one in expecting some sort of peppermint (didn't look at the package) and instead you get this fantastic, buttery honest-to-God key lime taste! Yeah, I don't know how 'buttery' fits in there, but it was. Just like the Willy Wonka 5-course dinner candy or whatever it was called. The snozzberries taste like snozzberries!
Don't forget this part!
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Desperados is my favorite Mexican restaurant in Dallas. Desperados tacos are the only thing I've ever ordered and for good reason...they are freakin delicious!! I get the combo - one steak and one chicken. Served with rice and this interesting little salad (I don't like beans). The salsa is pretty decent too...and the top shelf margaritas are gooooood.
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Silly me, why haven't I reviewed Desperados? Our favorite hole-in-the-wall close to home Mexican restaurant.
Must haves:
Desperado Tacos- the tacos are slightly puffy & they just melt in your mouth-so good. (as every reviewer has mentioned them & obviously agrees also! lol)*
Desperado Nachos- the reason we come here- my husband gets some mad cravings for their bean & cheese nachos (we add chicken). The chips are crispy & won't get soggy on you!
Their margaritas are potent & tasty- you can get a top shelf for around $6. The Super G will kick your ass. Thank God we can walk here.
One thing I tried & didn't care for was their ceviche which is supposedly award winning, but it was a bit tomato-y and fishy to me.
The staff is friendly & the manager/owner will walk from table to table making sure everyone is enjoying themselves. One of our favs.
*Found this on their website:
Partnering up with the Dallas Cowboys
Beginning this season you can enjoy a delicious, world famous *Desperado Taco, amoung others, while at a Cowboys' home game. Desperados will operate two food stands at Texas Stadium for the next two years and then make the move to the new stadium with the team in '09. So come out, say "hola" and get some real food while watching America's Team, our own Dallas Cowboys.
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5 stars for Desperado tacos on Thursday night!
3 stars for atmosphere.
If you like Tex-Mex at all, you should definitely go here. Desperado Tacos are my favorite food in Dallas. I just moved, and I feel an empty place in my heart every Thursday night just remembering the good ole days ($5.95 special). The margaritas are good too, and they're on special on Wednesdays. The best one comes in a martini shaker, but heed my warning-- HOLD THE LID. If you don't, you'll be sorry.
There doesn't seem to be a lot of turnover in the waitstaff, which leads me to believe this is a good place to work. The hostesses, servers, and busboys are smiling and seem happy to be at work. Rojo has waited on us the most, and he always makes good recommendations. Trust him. He keeps trying to upsell me a dessert, but I'm always too full. Maybe next time though...
Although the service is fast and friendly, the atmosphere is a little bit campy. It's quite dark and a little bit dated. But they have an outdoor seating area, if you're into that kind of thing.
FYI-You can also find a Desperados booth at the State Fair of Texas.
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I can't believe I haven't reviewed this place yet. I'm trying to stay away from Mexican food, so I haven't been to Desperados in a couple of months. But if I get a craving, this is where I'll go. They serve really good Mexican food for way cheaper than most other places in Dallas. Their tortilla soup is quite good, and the crabmeat enchiladas were yummy. But, the Desperados tacos are the best thing on the menu. Sound boring, I know, but try them and you'll understand. They melt in your mouth. And their margaritas! Well, there's a reason they won Best Of Dallas so many times. Order the Super G and find yourself a designated driver.
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I must agree with a number of other posters, Desperado's is really a great spot for Tex-Mex on Greenville Ave., I've been going here for at least 10 years now and have had few disappointments.
My last visit, my regular waiter, Rojo, meaning red in spanish, took excellent care of me again, despite a couple of mistakes. You'll recognize Rojo, a long-time employee of Desperado's, by his ginger-hair, as red as any Scotsman, although he is indeed from Mexico.
My date and I arrived early on a Sat. with an incredible hangover from the previous night and began to drink more in order to kill our collective hangover. Rojo had noticed me right away when I walked through the door and we had a pleasant conversation in spanish before he seated me at a table of my choosing. I tried a margartia and a bloody-mary, "double-fisting it" in order to more immediately kill the headache. Both prepared strongly enough to suit me and brought quickly enough to appease my hangover-anxiety. I ordered a couple of antojitos or appetizers, queso and the mexican shrimp cocktail, both which should've come before the lunch entrees, but somehow, Rojo neglected these two orders and brough lunch sin antojitos, so to speak. I reminded Rojo of our appetizer orders (although lunch, as big as the portions were, might've been sufficient), and he brought them out quickly, and offered us two free margaritas to make up for the error, which we accepted happily and thirstily.
By now, on our third or 4th drinks, our eyes were beginning to resemble the sticky glaze of the rings made by our drinks on the table and the hangover we'd experienced earlier was being replaced again by a blissful drunkenness. Anything Rojo did and said at this point was funny due to the onset of inebriation and we ended up laughing through the rest of the lunch with him, easily forgetting his little mishap by now. I remember leaving him a nice tip, although I now forget what exactly I ate for lunch, lol. The appetizers though, were just fine, the queso especially good, fresh and with a nice yellowish-color, as opposed to the beige, unsalted, completely-lacking-in-flavor variety that I've found elsewhere. The mexican shrimp cocktail was not as good as other places I've visited, namely AwShucks, which I would have to award 'Best Mexican Shrimp Cocktail on Greenville Ave' if indeed, they had such an award, but still passable cocktail, nonetheless. Whatever I ate for lunch, it was decent to above-average Tex-Mex fare. I'm sure it was some kind of enchilada plate or something...
Having been here many times in the past and never having experienced anything more than a simple problem such as the one mentioned before with the mysteriously forgotten appetizers, I have to give Desperado's 4 stars for consistently good Tex-Mex food and consistently great service. They also have a cozy fireplace in back that's great for weekend brunches and parking is usually not a problem. As such, they earn a well-deserved 4 stars and I hope they stay in business for many years to come. Viva Rojo and Desperado's!!!
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I've never had a bad meal at this place. If you go, make sure you try their specialty, the Desperado Tacos.
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